GERMANY TO-DAY.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XLII, Issue 35, 2 May 1922, Page 3

GERMANY TO-DAY.

Mr B. Gordon, a Wellington’ businessman, who made a. trip through Germany throe months ago, has given a Doniiniou reporter some interesting details of hi* visit to- the Germans. He says the depreciated currency simply means that' the unit of buying and selling is different from wh'at it was before the war. 1 f you ask an intelligent German h'e will tell you tflat his standardx>f living is just as good to-day, and, in many cases, better than it are the most contented people^!- have met anywhere, yy says.Mr Gordon. “The_ wage-earner is far xnofc” prosperous titan' his fellow in England and the United states. Begging ig common in-every Al-7 lied metropolis; it is, unknown in Germany. The restaurants arc full, and the food is very good. They drink the best of liquors. The average wage for the unskilled worker'is 500 marks a month, of a- skilled worker 1000, and of a.' domestic servant 100. -ks out in our English money at Ils '-jrfl? 22s 3d, and 2s 3d respectively, but look at the prices I paid—2s marks or the equivalent of Gid for a bedroom and sitting room for a night in one of the best hotels in Mcmcl, a town of six times the size of Wellington. At the best" hotel in Berlimyou can get the best ■ aceommodatiom’th.ey have for about six shillings a day.- Bread costs six marks a loaf, and in the town occupied by the? French, thirteen mal’ks, the difference; being a tax imposed by the French.-. Workers may get bread and rheat at reduced prices on getting ‘ 1 concession’ tickets. Food is plentiful, with the excccption of fresh milk. The great bulk o'f the milch cows were taken over by Franco under the Peace Treaty. Theu. only people who are allowed fresh milk arc infants, aged and sick people. There is a 10 per cent, tax an all wages imposed by the Government.. The shortage of houses is the greatest difficulty. The landlord business is the poorest in the world, and no man dreams of building a house unless he wishes to occupy it himself. Children are the picture o f health. They are well-dressed and well-fed, and attend kindergartens just as they do in America. The only unfortunates among them arc the illegitimate ones, some of whose fathers were in the military, but they are sympathetically cared for.

TRADE AND REPARATIONS “Reparations? The average German does not care a hang__what the Allies make his country pay. Workers that 1 conversed with take a philosophical view of the situation, and hope the Allies will take their d.ue in the shape, of goods manufactured in Germany, sen<in such and huTes in there will be -plenty-of-work and dbnfestie prosperity will follow. ThO tradethat is done with'England and America already is enormous. Almost every big merchant I mot speaks English fluently/a circumstance that was unknown before the war. German towns arc full c.f English and American buyers. The out put of some factories has been purchased for twelve months. There is an export tax of 50 per cent.—that is, part of the reparations payment. There is an inland revenue tax of 50 per cent, imposed on foreigners who buy goods :i Germany. NEW ZEALAND TROOPS. ’“Of all the troops that wqre billet ted ■ the Rhine, the New Zealanders left ■t'hind in Germany the best reputation in 1 for no part of that reputation docs 7 1 German honour the New Zealander uro than for his morals and his atti- • ide towards the German women. Ihc sere mention of the fact that you coco "rein New Zealand is sufficient to gTC on a hearty handshake and everything tat can possibly bo done for your com- ; brt is done. New Zealanders ihiougb heir spending arc spoken of in tho, amo breath as American milliXSnhtrcs;. but the Corman cannot understand why. •New Zealand will not send her wool to Germany and take manufactured good’s. hi return. Of the quality of these goods L made some examination, and found hut although there is good and bad. t;reful buying will ensure excellent inality. Take this suit of clothes I am wearing (Mr Gordon was dressed in a suit of superior brawn cloth s'.m’dar to vicuna). This cost me.the eqiuvalcnt of about £2.”